


Tea Time

by nothingeverlost



Series: Synnove Rumpelstiltskin [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Childhood, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-17
Updated: 2013-04-17
Packaged: 2017-12-08 18:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/764478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You should be more quieter.  Drake doesn’t like big noises.”  His stride through the great hall was broken when he came across a girl sitting at a small table.  He’d been prepared of all manner of beasts, even the possibility of dragons, but this was a small girl with hair of brown and a dress of pale blue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea Time

“Rumpelstiltskin! We need to talk.” Charming had only been the the Dark Castle once, and only into the anti-chamber then, but he didn’t think twice before barging in after his knock wasn’t answered. He knew the trickster well enough to be aware that anything might be contained within the dark stone walls. He’d been prepared. At least he thought he had.

“You should be more quieter. Drake doesn’t like big noises.” His stride through the great hall was broken when he came across a girl sitting at a small table. He’d been prepared of all manner of beasts, even the possibility of dragons, but this was a small girl with hair of brown and a dress of pale blue. She didn’t look scared, or frightened. After only a moment of looking at him she reached across the miniature table and patted the strange purple stuffed animal on the head. “Sometimes when he gets scared he blows fire at people.”

“Is he your guard dog?” Charming kept his voice soft as he tried to figure out why there was a child in the Dark Castle. If Rumpelstiltskin had made one of his deals he needed to pay, and the girl needed to be returned to her family. Enough families had been broken apart 

“He’s not a dog. Dogs are little. Drake is a dragon, even though papa thinks he’s a crocodile. Rawr.” The child made a face and waved her hands in the air, a child’s attempt at being fierce. “Drake can make scary sounds, only he doesn’t want to.”

“I’m sure he can.” Charming crouched down beside the table, studying the child carefully. He saw no signs of bruises or fear, and as handy as a necklace proclaiming who she belonged to would have been, he didn’t see one of those either. “Do you know where your papa is, sweetheart?”

“Uh hu.” The girl held up a cup; strange, but he had only noticed two before, but now there seemed to be three. “Do you wanna have tea with me and Drake? It’s yummy.”

“I don’t think so. I need to talk to a man called Rumpelstiltskin.” As important as his concerns about Regina were, his focus was divided now. He needed to be sure the child was safe.

“That’s a funny name.” Her laugh was like a peel of bells, a happy sound that seemed at odds with a place called the Dark Castle. If Rumpelstiltskin wouldn’t talk he might have to bring the child home. Snow might have some ideas of what to do with her and how to find her family.

“It’s the name of the man who lives in this castle.” He wondered what deal the child had been a part of, what a family might have needed so desperately to part with their daughter. He thought of Snow and the child she carried, and knew that nothing would induce him to give his child away. It would be months before he could even meet the babe, but he loved him fiercely.

“Only me and papa and Drake live here. No one else is allowed, ‘cause this is our specialist place just for us. Sometimes peoples come for little bits of time, but they always go away.” The child shook her head enough that her brunette curls flipped from side to side, briefly hiding her face. “There’s no Stillyskin man here, but if he comes he can have tea with us too. Now sit down, okay? It’s time for tea and Drake gets grumbly if his tea gets cold.”

“But...”

“You should learn to listen better, dearie.” From the shadows at the base of the stairs the man Charming had been seeking materialized. “The mistress of the castle has invited you to tea; it’s rather rude to decline, I should think.”

“Papa, me and Drake made a new friend. He teached me a funny word and everything. Wanna hear?” She was out of her chair in an instant, abandoning her tea and animal to bounce towards Rumpelstiltskin. The man was not, for once, smirking or playing a game, or eyeing Charming with those dark eyes that always seemed to be mocking. For a moment he wasn’t paying Charming any attention at all, his focus only on the girl that he scooped up, tossing her in the air before catching her.

“Our dear prince is full of funny words, my sundrop.” Although he raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the table, his warm laugh was clearly meant for the child.

“Like the hat man, papa? Mr. Jeffyson knows lots of funny words too.” She squirmed until she was set down, running to the table that was now somehow set for four. “My new friend is looking for a Stillyskin, papa. Can we help him look? Me and Drake would be good Stillyskin hunters.”

“Perhaps we shall give it a try tomorrow, pet. For now why don’t you run down to the kitchen and bring us back some of those little cakes you like so much. Company for tea calls for something special, don’t you think?”

“This many, papa? For Drake too?” She held up all of the fingers on her right hand. Rumpelstiltskin gently folded her thumb flat against her palm.

“That many, my love, though I’m not sure that crocodiles like to eat tea cakes.”

“Papa, he’s a dragon and they love cake the mostest of anything.” It sounded like a well practiced exchange, something that had happened a hundred times already and would a thousand more again. It sounded like any number of conversations he’d had with his parents, growing up, and nothing like the conversations between himself and George.

“Papa?” Charming asked curiously when the child was gone from the room.

“You think I stole her from some unsuspecting family, no doubt.” The mask that Charming was so familiar with had slipped back into place, the imp’s posture more rigid and his eyes colder. If he had not seen, with his own eyes, the tenderness in the man Charming would have never believed it.

“No one’s ever spoken of there being a child in the Dark Castle.” There were a thousand rumors about the Dark One, some which Charming knew to be false, some which were true, and some that Charming didn’t want to know either way. Never in the years since he’d heard about the trickster or the more recent years since meeting him had Charming heard anything of a child. “She’s really yours?”

“I told you once of her mother.” Rumpelstiltskin stood almost eerily still, his expression belaying nothing but his voice not quite as calm.

“You lost her.” He had almost lost his Snow, that day, and had had little time to feel another man’s grief. He thought of Snow, safe in their castle readying the nursery for their babe. He would do anything for her, even seek help from Rumpelstiltskin. If he were to lose her he wouldn’t know how to go on.

“I did not lose everything.” There was an echo of small footsteps, racing up the steps. “You will say nothing about my daughter to anyone. Whatever business you wish to discuss will wait until after tea. Break either of those rules, dearie, and I will break your hand, and that’s just for starters.”

“I don’t keep things from Snow.” It was an easy promise, not to speak of Regina before the child, but to keep a secret from his wife was another matter.

“Very well. But no one else,” Rumpelstiltskin wiggled his finger. “And trust me, you can’t afford to pay the forfeit I would demand.”

“Papa, I haved them. And I didn’t even eat any on the way.”

“I suppose that bit of frosting just jumped onto your lip, dearie?” As if a switch had been flipped, Rumpelstiltskin was once again less tense, his smile more genuine. He was every inch a father, and it was a strange sight to behold.

“Maybe I ax’dentally tasted a little when I got close to see if they smelled good.” She set a cake on each plate with a flourish of her hands that Charming was surprised to see was just like something her papa would do. “Drake says it’s time now to drink and eat.”

“We’d be honored, wouldn’t we Charming?” The Dark One, feared by all in the realm, sat on the floor with his legs crossed, a child to his left and a stuffed animal to his right.

“Of course.” Charming was pretty sure that it was the strangest tea party he’d ever been invited to. Snow was never going to believe this.


End file.
